Interview with Petie McCarty

Coffee Time Romance and More welcomes Petie McCarty today. We are so excited you are here to talk to us today thank you for letting us take a peek into your life.

Let’s start with a few questions about your writing.  Can you tell us about your April release, The SEAL’s Angel?

I’d love to and thank you for allowing me to spend time with your Coffee Time Romance readers today and to share my newest release, The SEAL’s Angel. This is the third book in the Mystery Angel Romances [MAR] series. Each stand-alone love story in the series has an angel hidden in the plot, and the angel’s identity isn’t revealed until the finale — unless the reader figures it out first.

In The SEAL’s Angel, Navy SEAL Sean MacKay’s teammate is murdered after stealing a deadly nerve-gas formula from Syrian terrorists. Naval Intelligence believes MacKay’s teammate was a traitor and shipped the stolen formula to his sister in the states for safekeeping. MacKay is given orders to find the sister before the terrorists do and to retrieve the stolen formula at all costs.

Foreclosure looms for Cory Rigatero as she fights to keep her rustic resort near Mt. St. Helens afloat after her brother deserted her to join the SEAL Teams. Cory’s whole world dives into a tailspin when Sean MacKay shows up at her resort with the news of her brother’s death and the wild suspicion her brother may have sent her traitorous classified documents. No way will Cory trust MacKay — the man who once seduced her and then vanished into the night without a trace.

Thus far, the reviewers have been very kind. The SEAL’s Angel has garnered a 4.43 average rating on Goodreads and quite a number of 5-star reviews from book review blogs during recent and ongoing promotions.

The SEAL’s Angel sounds like an a great mysterious adventure. When a new book comes out, have you ever been nervous over readers’ reaction to it?

Every. Single. Time.

The week before is the worst, and I second-guess the book’s possible success day and night. What if this one is a stinker? And if it is, will I lose all my readers? What made me decide to write that old story anyhow? And on and on…

My sixth book, the first in a new series, should be released before the end of the year, and I’m sure history will repeat itself, and I’ll go through it all again. But I know a lot of writers who go through the same thing.

Would I ever give up writing to avoid the angst? Not a chance! *grin*

I imagine all authors feel like they are standing on eggshells with new releases.  What comes first in your writing? The location, the characters, or the plot?

Definitely, the plot. Each of my stories has arrived the same way. Odd as it sounds, I see a movie running in my head. If the movie shows up with a beginning, a conflict, and a resolution, then that’s the next book I write. Usually, only the hero and heroine show up in the beginning. The secondary characters show up as I sit down to put the story on paper. Last is the location as the movie has only a general vicinity or region, and I will choose the exact spot for the story during research.

It is interesting how each author is different in their writing styles. So how far are you willing to go for research? Would you for instance, cook certain foods, go on police ride alongs, view autopsies or surgeries, try BDSM, or even, certain drugs to make your books more realistic?

Thus far, most of my research is done via the Internet or personal contacts. I spend weeks researching the chosen story location and its geography, climate, and native vegetation. The SEAL’s Angel‘s location in the Mt. St. Helens area was chosen because I’d vacationed there twice before, but a lot of extra “sabotage” research was required for the series of events occurring at the heroine’s resort. I needed to contaminate a water tower, collapse a dock, and sink a kayak. You know, the usual stuff. You can never have enough real-life resources either. I found a very nice kayak builder out west who helped me sink the kayak, and I have a friend from my old “day” job — a former Lieutenant in the Navy SEALs — who kept me from making any SEAL faux pas with my hero.

The research for my first novel Everglades was closest thing to the real deal as I had spent two years of my career as a biologist surveying aquatic plants in Florida waterways via every type of floatable craft and more often than not, by airboat. Everything that happened to the heroine on her airboat safari into the famed River of Grass happened to me at some point during my career. Except having the hunky airboat guide. I never got one of those, so I wrote my own — an especially sexy one if I do say so myself. *wink*

Wow you really are an adventurous soul. Do you have other WIP’s you want to get published?

Of course. Every author does, don’t they? J I have another new series in the hopper, and the brand will be The Cinderella Romances… Fall in love with the fairy tale all over again. Luckily, there will be unlimited opportunities to retell the famous fairy tale in different locales with different heroines playing the part of Cinderella. Having worked at The Most Magical Place on Earth for years [Walt Disney World], I know first-hand that Cinderella is the universal favorite for a heroine. How fun to get to retell the fairy tale a dozen different ways. Sometimes the reader will know who the Prince Charming is at the get go, and sometimes they won’t. That will make each fairy tale unique.

The first story — Cinderella Busted — is complete and under contract to Soul Mate Publishing. The romantic fairy tale moves to present-day Jupiter Island, Florida where a beautiful gardener is mistaken for a wealthy socialite by a billionaire resort developer. Anxious for one fabulous date with her handsome prince, the gardener cultivates her inadvertent masquerade. Love at first sight controls their mutual attraction, and feelings run deep before her deception is inevitably discovered. I’ll keep you posted on the release date.

At this moment, I am finishing up my new regency time-travel romance, Duke du Jour, and will begin the process of finding a publishing home for it. In Duke Du Jour, the fourteenth Duke of Reston falls into a fountain in an overgrown section of his ancestral estate and wakes up in regency England in 1816 where he is mistaken for his namesake and great-great-and-so-on grandfather, the seventh Duke of Reston, who has been missing since the battle of Waterloo.

This one is colored with quirky humor and is a blast to write. *grin* I haven’t had this much fun writing a story since Catch of the Day.

They both sound good. You must like writing a few different genres. Where do you look when you need inspiration?

I’ve been very blessed and have never had to look far. Inspiration usually finds me when the new movie starts to run in my imagination. I just try and hang on for the ride, and I thank the good Lord so many people want to read the movies I turn into stories.

That’s always a blessing when our ideas come easily and work out positively. Is there a question you wish readers or interviewers would ask more?

Probably a question about editing. That always seems to be the number one complaint in less than stellar reviews, and I wonder why more bloggers don’t ask about the author’s protocol for review. Each publisher has their own house rules for grammar, punctuation, and extras, and a lot of publishers use the Chicago Manual of Style — both of mine do. I suspect that the style of editing used by each author is as varied as their voice or writing style.

I hated editing at first — killing my darlings and all — and now it’s my favorite part of the story creation. I write — and type as I go — the first draft straight through without any do-overs. No stopping whatsoever. It’s tough sometimes, especially when I’m writing certain passages or dialogue and I’m grimacing in pain, but I know I get to go back and “make it pretty later.” When I do the very first edit — there’s usually four or five — I read the entire story aloud as I go. This helps me immeasurably in making my changes. You’d be surprised how much that can mean to the quality of your edits. Text, especially dialogue, sounds different when read aloud.

Lol sounds like you have made peace with edits. Were you an avid reader before you began to write?

Before, during, and still am a voracious reader. I realized after reading two dozen or so writing texts — where everyone has a different opinion on what works — that I learned more from reading novels, both good and bad, than from all my how-to books. Read some of the fiction masters [like James Patterson, Jayne Ann Krentz, Cathy Maxwell, or Michael Connelly] to see what works best for plot, pacing and characterization and then read a few bad books to learn what not to do.

Hopefully more good books are read than bad but the bad does offer some incite. Do you write under any other names?

At present, I only write as Petie, which isn’t exactly a pen name, and I’ll still answer to it in a crowd. J Petie was my childhood nickname all the way through high school — though only to family and close friends. When I was two, my dad started calling me Pistol Pete, which he later shortened to just Pete, and friends turned it into Petie. I decided to use the nickname when I googled it and found there was no other author named Petie in existence. There are quite a few authors with the first name Stephanie, so my decision was made.

 I like it; it’s different.  I too use my nickname Matilda it was given to me by my grandmother but I have no clue why she chose that particular name. Ok how about some stranger personal questions for you.  If you were marooned on an island, what 5 things would you bring with you?

My darling husband, of course, my English Springer spaniel Lily [since she suffers from separation anxiety, probably because she’s a rescue dog], and my three favorite books since I like to reread them — Charlie All Night by Jennifer Crusie, Archer’s Voice by Mia Sheridan, and Lucky’s Lady by Tami Hoag.

What great choices! If you were an ice cream flavor, what one would you be and why?

I’d be vanilla because you could team me up with anything — nuts, fruits, syrup, candy — and I could only get better.

LOL love that answer. Do you have any hobbies that you enjoy?

I love to play golf. I stink at golf, but who cares? My sweetheart loves golf, and believe me, you can get in some great snuggle-and-smooch time in a small golf cart for three or four hours, especially in the winter when it’s cold. Did I say I loved golf?

ooh never thought of smooch time in golf maybe I’ll have my hubby take up golfing. Is there a place you have never been to that you always longed to go?

The Scottish Highlands and I will get there someday. Promise!

Sounds like a great place to visit a true activity for your bucket list. Wrapping this interview  up do you have any final words or advice?

If you’re a writer and want to be published, just remember what the great Stephen King once said, “The only difference between a published author and an unpublished author is the published author never gave up.” If you’re a reader, I hope you’ll give one of my stories a try. See if you can figure out who the angel is in the Mystery Angel Romances. 🙂

Thanks bunches for allowing me to spend time with you on Coffee Time Romance today. Readers can check out the first two chapters of each of my books on my website at http://www.petiemccarty.com and also find me at the following social media links:

Facebook | Goodreads | LinkedIn | Twitter | Pinterest

Great advice. thank you so much for answering some questions for us. I wish you luck, success, and many sales in your future.